Key learnings and time well spent

It’s been a while since I made any updates here on the site, but I’ve been busy out in the real world laying the foundation it will take for this project to be possible. More specifically, I’ve spent basically the entire previous year working on several different motorcycles. If I had to put a number on it, I’d say that my mechanical knowledge and experience has at least tripled since I first thought of this project. I’ve rebuilt carburetors. I’ve rebuilt brakes. I’ve rebuilt suspensions. I’m in the progress of rebuilding two separate engines into one that will hopefully run.

While none of this work has been directly related to Project Streetliner, it’s all been tremendously helpful in laying a solid foundation of both component knowledge and general motorcycle understanding. As much as the Streetliner looks like a car in the latest renderings, it’s still basically about 90% motorcycle. It’s a three-wheeled cabin motorcycle where the frame is doing double duty as a safety cage. Having now pulled several bikes apart in pretty significant ways, I’m feeling so much more prepared to take this project on for real. I know I won’t do this alone, but thinking back to a year ago, I’m now so much closer to being ready to kick this project off. Funding is still a huge question mark, but money aside, I’m feeling a lot closer to getting this project started from a place where success is that much more likely.

On the funding front, I’m thinking very seriously about putting this up as a Kickstarter project. I’m thinking I’d need to raise about $15,000, which is pretty small by their standards. What I’d love to get everybody’s input on would be this: what incentives sound appealing to you guys? I was thinking perhaps of a range from high-quality prints of the renderings (like a poster series), all the way up to a complete set of kit plans. What do you guys think? What would you pitch in $50 for? How about $500?

To test the tilt control system we’ve had it out to a Police training skid track (polished concrete covered with water) where our first time out we beat the best lap time by all the competing cars by ~2sec. There isn’t a body on it yet, but there are a few renderings of where we are headed with it.

Kickstarter is a fantastic idea! I recently successfully completed a Kickstarter campaign. It was some work, to be sure, but was well worth it. It is a fantastic and economical way to get great exposure for your idea. As far as rewards to backers go, I would suggest a set of plans in varying degrees of completion, various formats such as electronic or physical blueprints, component kits, and sub assemblies for those of us who can weld but would prefer to leave that to the professionals.